The Kopernik Observatory located near Binghamton, New York celebrated the observatory's
25th anniversary over the weekend with a special event amateur radio station that also
honored the memory of one of the observatory's founders - Kaz Deskur, K2ZRO.

Kaz Deskur died in 1984. Deskur's widow and family attended as honored guests along
with keynote speaker Dr Joseph Dervay, a NASA astronaut-physician.

Amateur Radio club station KB2UYF is located at the observatory, and paperwork has been
submitted to the FCC to change the station's call sign to K2ZRO.

Deskur was a satellite pioneer who operated the observatory's ham station under his
call sign for many years. In the early days of the OSCAR and AMSAT programs, K2ZRO was a
familiar call sign on many satellites. Kaz designed the original OSCAR-LOCATOR, a device
many 'old-timers' used to track a satellite before the advent of personal computers and
software tracking programs. For many years AMSAT sponsored an engineering award in Kaz
Deskur's honor.

The Kopernik Observatory is establishing a special 'Wall of Honor for Amateur Radio
Satellites' to honor Kaz Deskur. All hams that knew or worked with him are invited to send
their QSL cards for display on this wall. QSL cards may be sent (in an envelope) to:

Many digital satellite operators will be on hand in Phoenix, Arizona this September for
the 18th annual ARRL and TAPR Digital Communications Conference.

TAPR's Greg Jones, WD5IVD, will chair this year's conference.

The conference is an international forum for radio amateurs in digital communications
(including via satellite), networking and related technologies - to meet, publish their
work and present new ideas and techniques for discussion.

Conference highlights include a full day of papers, breakout sessions and selected
topics for the beginner to advanced amateur digital enthusiast.

As the International Space Station mission of STS-96 draws to a very successful close,
thoughts now turn to the next SAREX mission, STS-93. This mission is tentatively set for a
late July launch and is scheduled to include both voice and packet operations.

AMSAT Vice President for Human Spaceflight, Frank Bauer, KA3HDO, tells ANS that
currently the International ARISS team is busy with the development and qualification of
hardware for ISS. The team will be delivering the first ham equipment (the Initial
Station) to NASA this July for launch on STS-101 in December.

Initial Station hardware is being built and qualified by a multinational team with
members from Russia, Italy, Germany and the United States. KA3HDO tells ANS that he is
"quite proud of the international cooperation that is occurring to bring all this
hardware to flight status."

Meanwhile, ARISS team member Will Marchant, KC6ROL, reports that five schools are
currently scheduled to have dedicated contacts with the crew of STS-93. Crewmembers are
also expected to support random voice contacts and packet operations on 144 MHz.

With the May/June issue of the AMSAT-NA Journal due to arrive very soon, plans are
underway for the July/August issue. Featured articles will include an ARISS Update, A Chat
with Andy Thomas, Don't Fear the LEO's and an OPAL, PanSAT, StenSAT and VoxSAT overview.
ANS reminds satellite operators that AMSAT-NA membership includes the Journal.-ANS/Russ, K5NRK

A formal copy of the AMSAT Phase-3D Dayton Hamvention news release has been placed in
the 'News Release' area of the AMSAT-NA web page. Check it out!-Paul, KB5MU

Several news agencies have reported that Mir's current crew will abandon the Russian
space station in August, and the orbiter will circle Earth unmanned until early next year.
It is then expected the aging station will burn up in the atmosphere. Repeated attempts to
raise money to continue support have failed.-AP/CNN/Morrock News

When John Glenn returned from his historic shuttle flight last November, it took him
four days to regain his balance. But the fact he did was one of the first concrete results
to emerge from the mission. Using knowledge gained from Glenn's mission and an extensive
study of how other NASA astronauts recover their sense of balance, researchers hope to
develop techniques to predict and prevent falls among elderly men and women.-Florida Today

Investigators using the Mars Global Surveyor spacecraft revealed a new and complete look
at the surface of Mars recently as they showed off the most detailed elevation map yet
made of the red planet. Over 27 million elevation measurements were assembled to
produce the global view.-Sky & Telescope

Scott, WA6LIE, has a set of instructions on how to work the Mir space station. Copies
of the instructions are available from Scott by e-mail at wa6lie@juno.com,
or by packet at wa6lie@wa6lie.#wcca.ca.usa.noam.

[ANS thanks Scott Avery, WA6LIE, and the MIREX team for Mir status information]

RS-13's Robot CW auto-transponder is currently active. For confirmation of an RS-13
Robot contact, send your QSL card along with the Robot QSL number to:

Radio Sport Federation
Box 88
Moscow
Russia

Kevin, AC5DK, has information about RS-12/13 that contains a simple explanation on how
to operate on the satellite, including a forum for operators to exchange information, pose
questions or even set up skeds via RS-12/13.

Dave, WB6LLO, has operating information for both RS-15 and RS-13 on his personal web
site. In addition to satellite data, antenna information and AMSAT-NA Jewelry Contest
information is also featured. The WB6LLO web site URL is http://home.san.rr.com/doguimont/uploads

Reinhard, DC8TS, plans to be active from Sao Tome through June 19th. Watch for
DC8TS around 145.890 MHz.

Masa, JN1GKZ, reports his web page shows the current AO-10 spin period and spin rate
(by measuring the beacon with FFTDSP software). The JN1GKZ web site can be found at the
following URL: http://www.din.or.jp/~m-arai/ao10/beacone.htm

Stacey Mills, W4SM, has more information about the satellite at the following URL:

AO-27 has again been seeing very heavy use especially during the weekends. Eddie,
N5JGK, was active from Riverfront Park in Vicksburg, Mississippi during 'Ham Day in the
Park' sponsored by the Vicksburg Amateur Radio Club in conjunction with the ARRL.

Watch for Don, KC4YRT, to be active from Glacier National Park in Montana (DN38am)
through June 9th. Don will be using a handheld and portable antenna.

Gerry, K1LRO, recently made his first contact on AO-27 (with N7SFI)!

The TEPR (Timed Eclipse Power Regulation) states on AO-27 currently are: TEPR 4 is
34 and TEPR 5 is 70.

During the period 15-April to 15-May reliable signals have been received from the
145.826 MHz beacon. The battery voltage during daylight passes has continued to
decrease. The internal temperatures have continued to fall, by about two degrees C
during this period, due to the increasing eclipse times.

The magnetorquer spin correction counters have now started to show some activity.
During the last month the negative spin counter has started to increment at about three
counts per day - previously it was incrementing at about one count every three days.

ProcMail V2.00G has been released by G7UPN. This software permits the processing of
image files from TO-31. ProcMail V2.00G is available for downloading on KO-23 and KO-25.
It also has been posted to the AMSAT-NA FTP site at the following URL:

Downlink frequency not established.
The satellite is not currently available for uplink transmissions.

PANSAT, developed by the Naval Postgraduate School, was launched from the shuttle
Discovery. PANSAT spread-spectrum digital transponders will be available to amateur radio
operators in the near future along with software to utilize this technology. The PO-34
command station is located in Monterey, California.

Dan Sakoda, KD6DRA, PANSAT Project Manager recommends 'The ARRL Spread Spectrum
Sourcebook' as a good place to start in understanding the spread-spectrum scheme.

Hans, ZS5AKV, reports that SunSat is still in the initial test stages and the command
team will provide more information as it becomes available. General amateur radio service
is planned for the near future.

SunSat was launched February 23, 1999 aboard a Delta II rocket from
Vandenberg Air Force Base in California. SunSat stands for Stellenbosch University
Satellite and takes it name from the South African university whose students constructed
the payload.

The SunSat package includes 1200 and 9600 baud digital store-and-forward
capability and a voice 'parrot' repeater system that will be used primarily for
educational demonstrations. The satellite has two VHF and two UHF transmit-receive
systems.

The satellite is not currently available for general uplink transmissions.

UoSAT-12 was successfully launched on April 21, 1999 from the Russian Baikonur
Cosmodrome. UO-36 carries a number of imaging payloads, digital store-and-forward
communications and mode L/S transponders.

G7UPN reports that due to the increase in satellite temperature over the past several
days the 437.025 MHz 38k4 downlink is off again. "This transmitter is generating too
much heat now that the satellite is in continuous sunlight. Hopefully over the next few
days we will change the attitude mode of the satellite and we'll then be able to put the
transmitter back on," Chris told ANS.